The Jacobite Rebellions (1689-1746) Part 5

[46] Loose straw rubbish.

[47] Chafing.

[48] b.u.t.tocks.

[49] Suchlike.

THE RISING OF 1715.

A. GATHERING OF THE CLANS (SEPTEMBER).

+Source.+--_The History of the Rebellion rais'd against His Majesty King George I. by the Friends of the Popish Pretender_, p. 187, by the Reverend Mr. Peter Rae. Second edition. (London: 1746.)

The Earl of Mar, then at London, not finding how to form his own interest at court, had resolved on those wicked and traitorous measures he afterwards followed; and in order to raise and carry on the rebellion, had, by some means or other, received from abroad, no less than the sum of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, together with letters and instructions under the Pretender's own hand, and a commission appointing him Lieutenant-General and Commander in Chief of his forces, as he called them, in Scotland: And fearing lest his traitorous designs against his lawful sovereign prince,[50] to whom he had so early and solemnly promised fidelity, might possibly be discovered, and he himself secured by the government, he resolved to make a sudden tour into Scotland, as the likeliest mean to prevent this fate, and in order to make some speedy advances in this his pernicious and b.l.o.o.d.y undertaking. Wherefore on the 2nd of August, or as some say, the 1st, in the evening, his lordship, in the dress of a private person, embark'd with Major-General Hamilton, Colonel Hay, and two servants on board of a collier in the Thames, and arriving in two or three days at Newcastle, hired there a vessel belonging to one Spence, which set him and his company on sh.o.r.e in the Ely, from whence he got over to Creil[51] in the shire of Fife. Soon after his landing he was attended by Sir Alexander Areskine, Lord Lyon, and others of his friends in Fife, to whom he made known the design of his coming, and then went forward to Kinoul, where he staid on Wednesday the 17th, and on the 18th he pa.s.sed the river Tay, about two miles from Perth, with 40 horse on his way to the north. Next day he sent letters to all the Jacobites round the country, inviting them to meet him in haste at Brae-Mar, where he arrived on Sat.u.r.day the 20th of August.

There is no room to doubt, that he had before-hand concerted measures with them; and that they were previously advised of his coming, before he arrived in Scotland: For, on Sat.u.r.day the 6th of August, their friends at Edinburgh were apprized of it; and early next morning Captain John Dalziel, a half-pay officer, who, in view of this rebellion had thrown up his commission to the Earl of Orkney, was sent out to give the alarm to his brother, the Earl of Carnwath, then at Elliock, where he arrived that night; and, early next morning, expresses were sent to the Earl of Nithsdale, the Viscount of Kenmure, and others of their friends in those parts; the Earl himself went down that same day to meet them, in order to forward their measures; and after some time spent in preparing others, whose inclinations they knew, to embark with them in that b.l.o.o.d.y project, they repaired to Lothian; and 'twas then given out, that they were gone to a hunting in the north. This was indeed a plausible pretence for their getting to the Highlands, and the more that the Earl of Mar, to cover his design, too black to be owned at the first, in calling the chiefs of the clans together, had proposed a hunting in his own country. Accordingly, in a few days after he arrived at Brae-Mar, he was there attended by a great number of gentlemen, of the best quality and interest of all his party: And particularly at their Great Council, which was held about August 26, there appeared the Marquis of Huntley, eldest son to the Duke of Gordon; the Marquis of Tullibardine, eldest son to the Duke of Athol; the Earls of Nithsdale, Marischal, Traquair, Errol, Southesk, Carnwath, Seaforth, Linlithgow, and several others; the Viscounts of Kilsith, Kenmure, Kingston and Stormount; the Lords Rollo, Duffus, Drummond, Strathallan, Ogilvie and Nairn, with a good many gentlemen of interest in the Highlands, amongst whom were the two Generals, Hamilton and Gordon, Glenderule, Auldbair, Auchterhouse, Glengary, and others from the clans....

... Moreover, we are told, that he shew'd them the letters he had received from Lorraine, under the Pretender's own hand, promising to come over to them in person, and put himself upon the valour and fidelity of his Scots subjects; and that in the mean time, they should be sure of ships, with arms, ammunition, and all military stores, with officers, engineers, and volunteers, as soon as they could give him an account to what port they would direct them to be sent: As also, that he shew'd them his commission under the Pretender's own hand, appointing him Lieutenant-General, Commander in Chief, and Director of the War; and a.s.sur'd them, that he was furnish'd with money, and would, from time to time, be supplied with sufficient sums to levy men, and to pay the troops regularly that should be raised; so as no gentlemen should be at any expence to subsist their men, but that both they, and the country should be eased of all such burthens.

With these and other such arguments, which he proposed unto them with a popular air, he at length prevailed upon them to embrace his project; and some say, they engaged by oath to stand by him, and one another, and to bring over their friends and dependants to do the like. However, the n.o.blemen and gentlemen did not immediately after this meeting draw together their men, but went every man back to his own estate, to take their measures for appearing in arms, when they should hear again from the Earl of Mar, who remain'd, in the mean time, in his own country, with some few attendants only. These n.o.blemen and gentlemen being returned home, began to draw together their servants and dependants, in all the places where they had interest, making several pretences for doing so, but did not discover the real design till things were in readiness to break out. And indeed it was but a few days after, that the Earl of Mar summon'd them all, at least such as were near at hand, to a general meeting at Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, on the third of September, in order to concert farther measures for their appearing in arms: And having there directed the drawing together their forces without any loss of time, he returned to Brae-Mar, and continued some days gathering the people, till their number was increased considerably; but the accounts being so various, while some say there were then two thousand men, most of them horse, and others but sixty, I shall not condescend on the particular number: However, with those he had got together, he set up the Pretender's Standard at Brae-Mar, on the sixth of September, 1715, and there proclaim'd him King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, etc. 'Tis reported, that when this standard was first erected, the ball on the top of it fell off, which the superst.i.tious Highlanders were very much concern'd at, taking it as an omen of the bad success of the cause for which they were then appearing, and indeed, the event has proven that it was no less. Thereafter they went to a small town named Kirkmichael, where having proclaim'd the Pretender, and summon'd the people to attend his standard, they staid some few days, and then proceeded to Moulin, another small town in the shire of Perth, where they likewise proclaim'd him, and rested some short time, gathering their forces; and where by the coming in of others of their party, their number was considerably increased.

FOOTNOTES:

[50] George I.

[51] Crail.

B. DEFENCE OF EDINBURGH (OCTOBER).

+Source.+--_Memoirs of the Life of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Bart.: extracted by himself from his own Journals, 1676-1755_, p.

89. Edited by John M. Gray. (Edinburgh: Scottish Historical Society, 1892.)

In the mean time it must be confessed that their courage and conduct in Scotland far exceeded what was expected, for the Earl of Mar had so much address as to bring to the town of Perth, the center of all the enterprise, at least 10,000 men, some have carried the number to 12,000, which _I_ am inclined to believe, provided the 1600 men be included that past the Frith of Forth near the Island of May, of which hereafter.

During these convulsions in my native country, I was obliged to change my course of living and turn a military man, for being appointed one of the Lieutenants of the Shire of Edin., I was obliged to act my part in bringing the militia together. These consisted of a few men, horse and foot, who never continued 3 days together, and signified nothing in the military way, the lowland men being a great deal more unfit for warlike expeditions than the Highlanders who had joined the Earl of Mar.

However, with these militia troops we sometimes made a show, and perhaps they served to intimidate those who knew nothing about them. They were particularly useful and active when the Highlanders above mentioned past the Forth and were marching to take possession of Edin., for being drawn up on the high way a mile east of Edin., where these Highlanders were to march in order to take possession of the town, they found themselves obliged to turn to the right and take possession of the citadel of Lieth, the ----[52] of October, 1715.

That same night, to the joy of the inhabitants of Edin., who expected to be plundered by the Highlanders, the Duke of Argyll arrived from Stirling with 200 chosen foot and 300 dragoons, the foot mounted on country horses for more expedition. Next morning the Deputy Lieutenants and all the well affected to the Government of K. George waited on him, and immediately he ordered all his troops to march down with him to the attaque of the Citadel of Lieth.

I waited on his Grace, and we never halted till we were within 300 paces of that place. Here all our men were drawn up in 2 lines for the attaque. The foot in the center, and the horse on the wings, our number was as follows. 300 Dragoons, 200 Regular foot, about 200 of the Town Guards of Edin., and about 500 volunteers, with a regiment of militia.

These amounting in all to about 1500 men, were drawn up on the crofts to the westward of the citadel. There were likeways two regiments of militia from the shires of Merse and Teviotdale, who were drawn up on the Links on the south side of the town to prevent the Highlanders from escaping.

The Duke called a Council of War, consisting of the princ.i.p.al officers present, in sight of the enemy, here it was debated in what manner to attaque the citadel, for the duke had never seen it, and the issue was that in regard we had neither cannon, bombs, nor granads, it was impossible to do anything to purpose, for that our men would be destroied by the fire of the enemy before they came near the ramparts, for altho' these ramparts and bastions were ruined ever since the days of Oliver Cromwell, who about the years 1654 and 1655 ordered them to be repaired out of the old fortifications of Lieth, yet they were sufficient against such a body of men as we were who came there to attaque them. On these considerations we were obliged to return to the town in a very disconsolet manner.

The Duke might have been informed of the condition of that place before he marched there, but he thought nothing in Scotland, except castles, impregnable to his troops, and we who knew the citadel never doubted but dismounted Dragoons cou'd force the place sword in hand. The next thing to be done was to provide artillery from the Castle of Edin., in order to attaque the citadel next day, but that night the Highlanders, who were under the command of one Brigadier Macintosh, marched off to Seaton House, where they staid 3 or 4 days. Here several detachments were sent out of Edin. to attaque them, but being without cannon we cou'd do nothing.

FOOTNOTES:

[52] 14th.

C. THE BATTLE OF SHERIFFMUIR (NOVEMBER).

+Source.+--_A Fragment of a Memoir of Field-Marshal James Keith: written by himself, 1714-1734_, p. 16. (Edinburgh: Spalding Club, 1843.)

All our troops being now a.s.sembled, the Earl of Mar resolved to march towards the enemy, and on the eighth of November arrived at Denain,[53]

with fourteen battalions of foot and eight squadrons of horse, having left three battalions in Perth for the defence of the place; the ninth the army lay at Auchterarder, where he reviewed the troops, who consisted of about 6000 foot and eight hundred horse. Here we lay two days, waiting for two battalions from Fife; but finding these did not come up so soon as we expected, the twelfth we continued our march, the advanced guard lay near Dumblain, and the rest of the troops were quarter'd about a mile behind them, the want of tents and the coldness of the weather rendering it impossible for us to encamp. We had as yet no perfect account of the motions of the enemy, and concluded from the inferiority of their number (they being not above 3000 foot and twelve hundred horse), that they would fight us at the pa.s.sage of the river, but we had hardly got the troops marched to their different quarters, when we received orders to join with all haste our advanced guard, the Duke of Argile having pa.s.sed the Forth, and encamped about the toun of Dumblain, within cannon shot of them. Both armies lay all night on their arms, and next morning by day break we discover'd a body of the enemies on a rising ground near our left. Before eight in the morning, our army was formed in order of battle, in two lines, without any body of reserve. The Earl of Mar call'd all the general officers and heads of clans to a council of war, which was held at the head of the line, and there asked their advice whither we should attack the enemy, or return to Perth and wait the arrival of King James, who was every day expected, as also for accounts what success our friends in England might have; but it was carried almost unanimously to attack, none daring openly to oppose the current; the Marquis of Huntly only made some insinuations that it would not be fit to remain in unaction till the King's arrival.

The resolution being now taken to attack the enemy, the Earl of Mar commanded the Earl Marischal, with Sir Donald M'Donald's regiment of foot, and his own squadron of horse, to take possession of the rising ground on which a body of the enemies horse still remain'd, and to cover the march of the army on the left (our right being cover'd by a river) to the toun of Dumblain, where we imagined the enemy still to be. On our approach, the enemies horse retired; and we had no sooner gained the top of the hill than we discover'd their whole body, marching without beat of drum, about two musket shot from us. It was now too late to retreat; we therfor form'd on the top of the hill, and the Earl Marischal sent an aid-de-camp to advertise the Earl of Mar that he was fallen in with the enemies army, that it was impossible for him to bring off the foot, and therfor desired he would march up to his a.s.sistance as quick as possible,--which he did even in too much haste; for the army, which marched in four columns, arrived in such confusion that it was impossible to form them according to the line of battle projected, every one posted himself as he found ground, and one column of foot enclining to the right and another to the left of the Earl Marischal's squadron of horse, that regiment which should have been on the right, found itself in the center, separated from the rest of the horse, and opposed to the enemies foot; our foot formed all in one line, except on the left, where a bog hinder'd them from extending themselves, and encreased the confusion.

The Duke of Argile was no less embarra.s.sed on his side. His army was not yet entirely formed; the rear, which was to have formed his left wing, was yet on their march, and showed us their flanck, which being observed by Lieutenant General Gordon, he order'd our troops immediately to charge, which they did with so much vigour that in less than ten minutes they entirely defeated six regiments of foot and five squadrons of dragoons, which composed more than the half of the Duke's army, while the rest having taken the same advantage of our left, which had neither time nor ground to fire, entirely routed them. Both parties pursued the troops they had broken, not knowing what had happen'd on the other side, till at length the Earl of Mar, having had the fatal news of the loss we had receiv'd, order'd the troops to give over the pursuit, and having rallied them, returned to the field of battle, from whence we discover'd the enemy posted at the foot of the hill amongst mud walls, on the same ground where we had layen the night before.

The Earl of Mar sent immediately an officer to reconnoitre them, and at the same time a.s.sembled the General officers and heads of clans, to consult whether he should attack them again; but the officer having reported that their numbers were equal to ours, and the Highlanders, who were extreamly fatigued, and had eat nothing in two days, being averse to it, it was resolved to keep the field of battle, and to let the enemy retire unmolested, which they had already began to do under cover of the earth walls, as well as of the night which was now approaching, leaving us about fifty prisoners of ours, most of them wounded, whom they had not time to carry along with them. We continued on the field of battle till dark night, and then marched back to the same villages which had been marked for our quarters the night before.

The enemy had about seven hundred men killed or wounded, amongst whom was the Earl of Forfar killed, and the Earl of Islay wounded, and two hundred and twenty-three taken prisoners, and we had about 150 killed or wounded, and eighty-two taken; but among those killed we had three persons of note, the Earl of Strathmore, his unkle Auchterhouse, and Clanronald, and the Earl of Panmure very much wounded. The loss of colours was almost equal on both sides; but the enemy got five piece of our cannon, which we could not carry off, those belonging to the train having run away with the horses when they saw our left broke; and thus ended the affair of Dumblain, in which neither side gained much honour, but which was the entire ruin of our party.

Some unlucky mistakes which happened that day, must here take place; first, an order to the whole horse on the left to march to the right, which so discouraged the foot of that wing to see themselves abandoned, that to it may be attributed their shameful behaviour that day; nor were these horse of any advantage to us where they were posted, for the ground was so bad that they could never be brought to engage. Another, of no less consequence, was the mistake of the officer who was sent to reconnoitre the Duke of Argile's army in the afternoon, for he having taken his remarks more by the number of colours than the s.p.a.ce of ground they occupied, made his report that the enemy was betwixt two and three thousand foot strong, when in reality there was no more than three battalions, not making in all above one thousand foot, the other colours being what the Duke had just taken on our left, and being almost the same with his own, he now used them to disguise the weakness of his troops by making a show of four battalions more than he had, the ground and mud walls by which he was cover'd not allowing to see that he had formed only two ranks deep; this mistake hinder'd us from attacking him in the evening, which it's probable we might have done with better success than we had in the morning.

Next morning the Duke of Mar, finding most of our left had run quite away and was not yet returned, retired towards Perth, as the enemy had already done into Stirling.

FOOTNOTES:

[53] Dunning, in Perthshire.

D. THE OLD PRETENDER (DECEMBER).

+Source.+--_Memoirs of the Insurrection in Scotland in 1715, by John, Master of Sinclair_, p. 333. Edited from the original ma.n.u.script by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1848.)

Before these had come to Huntlie,[54] the King was already landed at Peterhead, the twenty-seventh day of September[55] [December], and was in his road to Fetteresso, where he halted. We were not long of hearing from those who came from the South that a young gentleman had pa.s.sed Aberdeen with Captain Allan Cameron; that they had gone straight to Fetteresso, and it was thought that young man was the King; Cameron was gone on post to Perth, and the other was left at Fetteresso privately.

This made Huntlie send a gentleman to Aberdeen with orders to go on till he got the certain account. By the time he got there, he was certainly informed the King was arrived, and that Mar was already at Fetteresso.